Locations for Sea Foam in Southern or Central California?

[Chester McCheeserton]

Just curious, I know that sea foam is rare, unpredictable, and short lived but I'm wondering if anyone has spotted any recently along the California coast? Are there certain locations that it appears more than others or is is totally random where it shows up?

Wanted to try photographing some...

[Leszek Vogt]

Don't know what will be your results, but give a shot at Montana de Oro. I'd guess after a storm ? I went to the further canyons of the park and saw something that most people simply miss. The water with foam would enter the narrow canyon, and when it was retreating back it would meet another wave (w/foam), which was pushing forward. As as a result I saw this beautiful overlap of foam....like watching tubs of latte :>). Got a shot of it at fast shutter 1/1000 sec ? It's a 35mm slide. Keep it in mind that this does not happen often.

Les

[LabRat]

I remember from the east coast while growing up is when there was high surf and a strong wind blowing into the wave, foam would appear...

It also might bloom when there is a high plankton growth, when combined with the above conditions, as I remember the beach being stinky with the foam rolling across it, so might be an organic smell...

So maybe try to find the place where all the above combine, but it only used to happen once in awhile, so hit and miss too...

I've heard old stories about friends dumping a box of laundry detergent into the fountains of Beverly Hills and running away, so maybe it can be created artificially... ;-)

Steve K

[Chester McCheeserton]

Don't know what will be your results, but give a shot at Montana de Oro. I'd guess after a storm ?

Les

Thanks Les, been there once and it was really nice for photographing, even with no foam. What you describe is the scenario I'm looking for, will keep an eye on the weather and maybe get lucky. The paths on the private preserve that go down by the nuclear power plant seemed great too...

[Chester McCheeserton]

I remember from the east coast while growing up is when there was high surf and a strong wind blowing into the wave, foam would appear...

It also might bloom when there is a high plankton growth, when combined with the above conditions, as I remember the beach being stinky with the foam rolling across it, so might be an organic smell...

Steve K

Thanks, all good tips. Yeah turning the fountain at the Grove into a foam intervention would likely be more artful. Might have a limited amount of time to get the pictures afterwords though....haha. Might not make sense to use the 57 on that one

[John Kasaian]

Call (831) 771-4400 in Moss Landing and ask them for the best locales and times to look.

[Drew Wiley]

Uh, foam at Moss Landing might equate to pollution from the Pajaro River. That's what's killing off the sea otter population in that area. And foam would spook me at any beach here for the same reason. If it smells like sewage, it probably is. Natural foam might occur due to talc or other minerals associated with serpentine rock formations, which are common on the central CA coast, but any significant amount of foam is likely to be due to something disgusting. Frankly, public health officials are worried about a cholera outbreak from Pajaro River water. Don't want this discussion to get derailed, but now that illegals are afraid to show up at public health clinics, such epidemics stemming from dank stream embankment campsites are not a hypothetical risk at all. It's a major concern, not to mention related issues, like the recent romaine lettuce ban. Another source of stinky foam in that area is the frequent failure of the Seaside and Fort Ord sewage system. In that case, bacterial counts from sea water are routine, and from time to time the beach is closed. As you get around the corner toward Pacific Grove and Monterey,
the much more aggressive wave action keeps things pretty well flushed out, if you'll pardon the pun.

[Chester McCheeserton]

Uh, foam at Moss Landing might equate to pollution from the Pajaro River ... .. now that illegals are afraid to show up at public health clinics, such epidemics stemming from dank stream embankment campsites are not a hypothetical risk at all.

Thanks John. and Thanks Drew. I'm pretty sure I've seen pictures of foam that is naturally occurring, but I guess it is a good idea to be wary of touching the stuff.

I've never been to Moss Landing, but I'm a little skeptical that the current state of our political reality as regards to immigration policy would have anything to do with the amount of foam present or the levels of it's toxicity...But imagine if it did and one could get capture that in a still photograph....it might have more meaning somehow, maybe even generate dialogue beyond formal and technical matters to us privileged folks sitting here waxing on about our shared interest in film and cameras...

let's see if this shows up on the mods sonar pings....;)

[Drew Wiley]

There will be signs telling you to stay off the beach, Chester. The Health Dept has that authority. Don't take my word for it. Trust your nose, and take notice of any official warnings. Sometimes the beaches are outright closed. No big deal. Just try your luck on the opposite side of Monterey Bay, which almost never has an issue except for seasonal shellfish warnings.

[John Kasaian]

See the flick Dunkirk? Lots of sea foam in that one!
Here's a discussion on sea foam with a illustration of sea foam at Ocean Beach in San Francisco.
https://www.quora.com/Whats-all-the-sea-foam-in-the-Dunkirk-film
I don't know how often Ocean Beach gets foamed though.
IIRC that last time I encountered sea foam was in Southern CA, but that was years ago.
Sea foam was also a nasty color some Coleman Lanterns came in.
I think most of those were sold by Sears or Montgomery Wards.
There's probably some hippies in Big Sur that still have sea foam Colemans,

[Drew Wiley]

Ocean Beach is another one that gets sewage closures from time to time. There are no more hippies. Before they got onto the endangered species list, the last three spotted in Bolinas were caught, and are currently taxidermied in the Smithsonian 60's diorama. Rumored sightings of two more in Garberville are kinda like the ivory billed woodpecker - maybe, maybe not. They'll all soon be forgotten, just like Sears Slowbuck stores.

[Willie]

WalMart and Auto Supply stores have it for the gas tank or crankcase. ;)

[John Kasaian]

The few surviving hippies in Fresno are mostly tenured at CSUF.
One "family" has been spotted in the Santa Cruz mountains and wildlife biologists have outfitted them with radio transmitters to track their movements.

[Drew Wiley]

I could mention a mega hippie who once taught poetry there, and definitely looked and smelled like an authentic hippie. Initials R.M. He lived up in the hills, but on his commute to and from, would go atop that little hill at Academy so he could spot cops from a distance when indulging in illegal recreational substances.

[John Kasaian]

I could mention a mega hippie who once taught poetry there, and definitely looked and smelled like an authentic hippie. Initials R.M. He lived up in the hills, but on his commute to and from, would go atop that little hill at Academy so he could spot cops from a distance when indulging in illegal recreational substances.

An EZ grader, LOL!

[Drew Wiley]

We referred to him as Mr. R. "Messy". He lived in a little shack with his wife and a younger "organic" gardner who always wore only a filthy loincloth. None of them shaved, bathed, or combed their hair. But law enforcement largely ignored them. There were much bigger fish to fry when it came to illegal commodities up in those woods. And the cowboys didn't bother them either. They were more concerned about hippie communes squatting on their big ranches and potentially starting range fires. There were a couple of incidents like that, with communes living in sandstone caves of the Ione Formation at the foot of the hills around Millerton. They were even giving their little kids LSD, and sanitation was nonexistent. I never heard of one of them being outright maimed or killed by cowboys, but I'm sure there were a few incidents when one of those hippies got lassoed from horseback, hog-tied to a tree somewhere, and were almost frightened to death. That was the whole point. But even that world was turned upside-down almost immediately. The very next year after I graduated, the High School class president got arrested for bringing a sack of psychedelic drugs back from SF, spent a year in prison, and then predictably married the daughter of the High School Principal, who sure wasn't happy about it! I say predictably, because even Steinbeck wouldn't have come up with a story like that; yet scandalous fate in small towns always seems to involve the progeny of either the Principal or the Preacher, always. It's an Einsteinian Law of the rural universe.